When is Rosh Hashanah / Yom Teruah
The Bride of YAHUSHUA better know when Rosh Hashanah truly is if we are expecting our beloved Bridegroom YAHUSHUA to come and get HIS Bride on this day. Every year on the internet there are different dates for Rosh Hashanah as well as the Biblical Holy Days and Feasts. What's up with this? Why the different dates?
The Crescent New Moon, the light rises upon her.Rosh Hashanah in Hebrew means "Head of the Year." So based on the Hebrew definition of Rosh Hashanah we ask this question, when is the Biblical head of the year or New Year?
In the past this Ministry has celebrated Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the seventh Biblical month like most others. We have done this in ignorance and if you think about it and go strictly by the Bible, how can the "Head of the Year" be the first day of the seventh (7th) month? We have heard all the reasons of why Rosh Hashanah is celebrated in the Seventh Biblical Month (beginning of the jewish civil new year blah, blah, blah) but non of these excuses or reasons are Biblical. Every reason or excuse is manmade doctrine or custom that can not be backed up Biblically. So, having said this, we will be honoring Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the First Biblical Month as the "Head of the Year" or New Year. We will also be watching on the customary Rosh Hashanah in the seventh month because we never know what YAHUVEH is going to do, but we definately need to be watching for YAHUSHUA on the Biblical "Head of the Year" from now on also.
According to Scripture the Biblical year begins with the first sighting of the Crescent New Moon after the barley in Israel reaches the stage in its ripeness called Aviv (Abib).
Click here to read where Aviv is mentioned in the Bible.
Exodus 12:2
This month shall be unto you the Beginning of Months: it shall be the "First Month Of The Year" to you.
Leviticus 23:5-6 (5)
In the fourteenth day of the "First Month at Even is YAHUVEH's Passover." (6) And on the Fifteenth Day of the same month is the Feast Of Unleavened Bread unto YAHUVEH: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
So these 2 scriptures tell us when the "First Month of the Year" is because the scriptures clearly say the Passover is in the "First Month". Therefore Rosh Hashanah is in the spring, 2 weeks before Passover.
Aviv (stage of ripeness) usually occurs before the end of the biblical 12th month but sometimes the barley does not reach the stage of Aviv until after the 12th month. In this case an extra month, a 13th month, is added to the calendar and this is called a Leap Year.
The period between one year and the next is either 12 or 13 lunar months and it all depends on the Aviv (stage of ripeness) barley. Because of this, it is important to check the state of the barley crops at the end of the 12th month. If the barley is Aviv at this time, then the following Crescent New Moon is Hodesh Ha-Aviv ("New Moon of the Aviv"). If the barley is still immature, we must wait another month for the New Year to begin after the 13th month.
A 12-month year is referred to as a Regular Year while a 13th month year is referred to as a Leap Year. This should not be confused with Leap Years in the Gregorian (Christian) Calendar, which involve the "intercalation" (addition) of a single day (Feb. 29). In contrast, the Biblical Leap Year involves the intercalation of an entire lunar month ("Thirteenth Month", also called "Adar Bet"). In general, it can only be determined whether a year is a Leap Year a few days before the end of the 12th Month.
So this establishes when the first month of the year is according to scripture. It will either be at the end of the 12th biblical month usually in March or it will be at the end of the 13th leap year month usually in April.
So how is it determined when the first day of the month is?
The Jewish calendar in the Biblical times of old was primarily lunar, with each month beginning on the New Moon, when the first sliver of moon (Crescent New Moon) becomes visible after the dark of the moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by observation. When people observed the Crescent New Moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent, reliable eyewitnesses that the Crescent New Moon occurred on a certain date, they would declare the Rosh Hodesh/Chodesh (first of the month) and send out messengers to tell the people when the month began.
The Crescent New Moon sets the First Day of the Month in YAHUVEH's Calendar. I could not find anything in the Bible stating the Crescent New Moon sighting was the beginning of the month but the Book of Enoch verifies that the First Day of the Month is called the New Moon, because this is the day that light first appears on the moon:
BOOK OF ENOCH, Chapter 78
(12) And on the First Day she is called the New Moon, for on that day the light rises upon her.
The New Moon, no light upon her.This is confusing because the New Moon is now called the 'Dark Moon' when there is no light upon the moon. The Book of Enoch, which should be in the Bible but was taken out of the King James Bible and most other Bibles also, but is still in the Ethiopian Bible, clearly states the New Moon is the day the light rises upon her; this is the Crescent New Moon. It was understood in that day that the New Moon Day meant the Crescent New Moon Day not the 'Dark Moon' as it is today. Satan again has twisted this around to send confusion upon the people. This is exactly what satan has done with the true Sabbath day also. He supposedly changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday. Here he also supposedly changed YAHUVEH's calendar from the Crescent New Moon to the New Moon or 'Dark Moon'. Look at that, the Dark Moon just like satan himself, full of darkness with no light. He has done this so we do not observe the true Biblical Holy Days and Feast Days on the Day YAHUVEH commanded, again just like the Sabbath.
Here is some other information we found trying to verify if the Crescent New Moon sighting was used to determine the months and New Year. This info is in the Talmud. Here is an explanation of what the Talmud is and what it says. After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD (about 30 years after YAHUSHUA's death), the so-called Rabbis began to write down the temple rituals in order to preserve them, and these writings were included in the Mishnah (the first part of the Talmud), and the Mishnah was completed around 200 AD. The Mishnah explains that the New Moon Day was determined by the observance of the Crescent New Moon. The Mishnah also explains how the Sanhedrin Supreme Court would examine the eye witnesses, who observed the Crescent New Moon, to see if the witnesses' testimonies were true. It clearly shows that the witnesses were observing the sky to see the appearance of the young Crescent New Moon that first appears after the Dark Moon.
The Mishnah was written between 70 AD and 200 AD, and the Gemara was written between 350 AD and 500 AD, and these writings are combined in one book called the Talmud. So-called Rabbi Hillel II (330-365 AD) was one of the writers of the Gemara, and he changed the Crescent New Moon Calendar to a "Fixed Calendar," based on a calculation method for determining the conjunction of the sun, moon, and earth, otherwise known as the "Hidden Moon" in the Gemara, or the Dark Moon. So-called Rabbi Hillel did this so that the Jews in the diaspora (those outside of Israel) would be able to keep the same calculated calendar, rather than observing the Crescent New Moon from different locations and keeping the New Moons and Holy Days on different dates.
Hillel's Fixed Hidden Moon Calendar was incorporated in the Gemara, and this completely changed YAHUVEH's commanded observances of the Crescent New Moon Days and the Annual Feast Holy Days. So-called Rabbi Hillel had "No Authority" to change YAHUVEH's Law on observing the Crescent New Moon from Israel, and for this reason YAHUVEH cut his life short and he died at about 35 years of age. The so-called rabbis only have authority to "Safeguard, Preserve and Teach YAHUVEH's Laws," not to change them. The Jewish community and other religious groups continue to follow Hillel's Fixed Hidden Moon Calendar to the present day, (which sets the Dark Moon as the first day of the month), thereby keeping their own man-made feasts and traditions, and not YAHUVEH's commanded Holy Days.
The Book of Enoch also verifies that the Dark Moon is the End of the Month, not the beginning:
BOOK OF ENOCH, Chapter 78
(14) On the side whence the light of the moon comes forth, there again she wanes till all the light vanishes and all the Days of the Month are at an END, and her circumference is empty, void of light.
When the Gemara portion of the Talmud was completed around 500 AD, it instituted many new laws that resulted from so-called rabbinic debates, and the law of observing the Crescent New Moon was changed to keeping the calculated Dark Moon (the conjunction). We are not saying the Talmud is a holy book by any means because it is not. It has a lot of error in it and man-made Jewish laws that are not from YAHUVEH. This book or whatever you call it does have some things in it that can be helpful to see how things were done back then. It is simply used as a reference to certain things in history.
The New Moon observers would begin to look for the Crescent New Moon after sunset, at the beginning of the 29th day of the month. The moon has a cycle of approximately 29.5 days. If the Crescent New Moon was not sighted, they would observe the sky again after sunset at the beginning of the 30th day. If the Crescent New Moon was still not sighted because of cloud cover or whatever at the beginning of the 30th day, the following day would be consecrated as the New Moon Day, since the month cannot have more than 30 days because of the 29.5 day moon cycle.
YAHUVEH's Laws tell us that YAHUVEH's Eyes are always on Israel throughout the whole year, and that the Law and the Word of YAHUVEH goes forth from Jerusalem. Therefore, the observation location for sighting the Crescent New Moon is established in Israel. The New Moon Day begins on the evening the Crescent New Moon is sighted in Israel, and as the earth rotates, the sunset moves westward around the world so that each country observes the same New Moon Day beginning at sunset:
OK, simple enough. This is how the Jewish months and New Year were determined until about the fourth century. As mentioned above in the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use by most Jews, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19-year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years. Adar II is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle. Jewish year 5758 (beginning October 2, 1997) is the first year of the current cycle.
In other words this is a man-made calendar based on mathematical and astronomical observations. This is not the way YAHUVEH commanded the months to be determined. NOWHERE in Scripture can we find a command by YAHUVEH that HE changed this.
So if Rosh Hashanah literally means “Head of The Year,” how can Rosh Hashanah be the head of the Year as it is commonly called at the beginning of the seventh month of the biblical calendar? The Bible/Torah tells us on the first day of the seventh month commonly called Tishrei commands us to observe the holy day of Yom Teruah which means “Day of Shouting”
Lev 23:23-25
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
Num 29:1
"On the first day of the seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly, and do no sort of work; it shall be a day on which you sound the trumpet.
That is it. That is the only refrences to this day in the Bible/Torah. This day is actually called “Yom Teruah” which means “Day of Shouting”. Yom Teruah is a day of rest on which work is forbidden. One of the unique things about Yom Teruah is that the Torah does not say what the purpose of this holy day is. Biblically Yom Teruah has no clear purpose other than that we are commanded to rest on this day. I can't even find the name Yom Teruah in the Bible/Torah, as stated it is the Jewish words for “Day of Shouting”.
So why is Yom Teruah commonly called Rosh Hashanah now? We can not find anything in the Bible/Torah commanding us to observe this date as the Head of the Year or New Year. Here is an explanation we found on the internet explaining how Yom Teruah is now called Rosh Hashanah.
One field of Babylonian religious influence was in the observance of Yom Teruah as a New Years celebration. From very early times the Babylonians had a lunar-solar calendar very similar to the biblical calendar. The result was that Yom Teruah often fell out on the same day as the Babylonian New Years festival known as “Akitu”. Akitu fell out on the 1st day of Tishrei which coincided with Yom Teruah on the 1st day of the Seventh Month. The fact that the Jews had started calling the Seventh Month by the Babylonian name Tishrei paved the way for turning Yom Teruah into a Jewish Akitu. At the same time the Rabbis did not want to adopt Akitu outright so they Judaized it by changing the name of Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting) to Rosh Hashanah (New Years). The fact that the Torah did not give a reason for Yom Teruah no doubt made it easier for the Rabbis to proclaim it the Jewish New Years.
It may seem bizarre to celebrate Yom Teruah as New Years considering that it falls out on the first day of the Seventh Month, but in the context of the Babylonian culture this was perfectly natural. The Babylonians actually celebrated Akitu, New Years, twice every year, once on the first of Tishrei and again six months later on the first of Nissan. The first Babylonian Akitu celebration coincided with Yom Teruah and the second Akitu coincided with the actual New Years in the Torah on the first day of the First Month. While the so-called Rabbis proclaimed Yom Teruah to be New Years they readily admitted that the 1st day of the “First Month” in the Torah was, as its name implied, also a New Years. They could hardly deny this based on Exodus 12:2 which says:
“This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is first of the months of the year.”
The context of this verse speaks about the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which falls out in the First Month. In light of this verse the Rabbis could not deny that the first day of the First Month was a biblical New Years which falls in March or April. But in the cultural context of Babylonia where Akitu was celebrated as New Years twice a year, it made perfect sense that Yom Teruah could be a second New Years even though it was in the Seventh Month.
So it looks like Rosh Hashanah the literal "Head of the Year" would be in March or April. The other reasoning we can find that Yom Teruah is now called Rosh Hashanah is Jewish tradition and belief that this was the beginning of creation. This is the date the actual counting of the Jewish calendar years begins, this Yom Teruah the Jewish calendar year will change its year. We can not find anything in the Bible/Torah to confirm this tradition. That is all we can say about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Teruah.
We do know this. YAHUSHUA has said HE is coming for HIS Bride on a Rosh Hashanah and it will be on a Sabbath. Did YAHUSHUA say Rosh Hashanah because this is the name we normally associate with Yom Teruah which falls in September/October? We don't know, but here is a reminder of what YAHUVEH said in Prophecy 61,
"MY Word says HE'll come in the midnight hour but what midnight hour? So as MY Beloved ones try to calculate what hour MY Son will come, MY dear ones, this is foolishness. Instead just work for ME and occupy, keep your lamps lit, work to bring the only treasure you can when you leave earth. For no one is going to know, as a thief appears in the night, so will the love of your life. But will HE find you without spot or wrinkle?
and YAHUSHUA said in Prophecy 92,
Again I say, I will send Michael the Archangel to her along with Gabriel and they shall speak the date to Elisheva, and at the precise time the trumpet blows, she cries out, "Behold the Bridegroom doth come." All the true Bride of YAHUSHUA ha MASHIACH spoken of in Revelation 14 all over the world will hear it at the same time and arise in the air. No one does know the exact time and hour. I have only told her the Holy Day will be on Rosh Hashanah. Since Rosh Hashanah is (celebrated) 2 days, and many people have different calculations which date it falls on, it is true, she does not know the hour. However, just as Elijah knew he would be taken, just as Noah knew the day he was to enter the ark and close the door, so it shall be again. MY Bride will know when they hear in the spirit the cryer cry out and say, "Behold the Bridegroom doth come."
So there you have it. What more can we say. We pray this will clear up any confusion regarding this matter. I know we will be ready for YAHUSHUA's return for HIS Bride whether it is in March/April or in September/October. Just continue to do what you have been called to do and let YAHUVEH take care of the rest.
Elisheva Eliyahu
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